Summer time is puzzle time for my kids.

We’ve loved doing puzzles since they were little kids, starting with the giant wooden block pictures, working our way up to the big floor puzzles, and these days we have been known to knock out a thousand-piece puzzle or three or four over summer break.

We typically work our puzzles on the formal dining room table, which only gets used for eating on holidays.

During the school year, I corral the kids and two of them work on homework while the other one practices piano, which is also located in the dining room.

During the summer, we started working on puzzles during practice time.

It keeps everyone in the area and cuts down on the amount of whining dramatically, since everyone wants to get back to work on the puzzle.

I’ve always been amazed at how different our approaches are to assemble the same puzzle. A has always been very good at being able to visualize spatial relationships and he is the kid that can reach into a pile of pieces and pull out an odd shape and after searching around a little bit, pull out the other odd piece that fits together. I’ve asked him how he does it and he says he can just see it in his head, what the piece should look like, and then he just looks for it in the pile.

G, on the other hand, has a work ethic that just won’t quit when it comes to doing the same puzzle. When he was little, he would literally pick up each piece and try every other piece of the puzzle with it until he found the right piece.

Putting together a 24-piece puzzle could take him hours, but he was determined, and he never quit. Eventually, he started realizing that he could narrow down his choices by color and pattern. I’ve tried over the years to show him how to look for the “innie” and the “outie” pieces, but he is insistent on trying them all.

I’m a person who sorts all the outside pieces first and builds the frame, then sorts the inside pieces by pattern and color, and then builds from the outside in, or from a few standout pieces out, until everything meets.

Trying to do things G’s way drove me bonkers, until we tried some uniquely shaped puzzle pieces that weren’t necessarily standard “ins” and “outs.” Then, G’s method worked wonders, and was probably the only way we managed to finish the puzzle at all.

E has what I consider to be the craziest method of all. While she dabbles in each of her brother’s methods at times, she likes to have the picture of the puzzle in front of her and she will match up puzzle pieces with the patterns and colors in the picture. While the boys occasionally accuse her of “cheating,” there have been times when we have been ready to give up on a particularly tricky transition, and her method has saved the day.

In the early stages of building the puzzle, my kids will rarely fight. Despite their different approaches, this seems to be one of the few times that they’re not trying to impose their will on each other, and they seem to understand that each of them brings a different strength to the table.

Things do start to get a little competitive when we get toward the end, though, and we are struggling to fit the few oddball pieces together and everyone is racing to be the “winner” who puts the last piece in place.

The first time we finished a big puzzle, the kids let me have the “honor” of placing the last piece. Unfortunately, that last piece had managed to disappear, and we spent weeks looking for it in every nook, cranny, and chair cushion.

The joke was on us, because it was setting on top of another part of the puzzle the whole time and just blended right in. After that, we went down the line and everyone got a turn to “finish” the puzzle. Since everyone has had their turn, puzzle building has now become a cutthroat race to the finish. The kids have made a pact that they will not work on the puzzle unless they are all working together. I take no part in that pact and have been known to lose sleep as I search for just one more piece. While I probably wouldn’t rob them of their chance to claim victory, they are frequently surprised at how much of our puzzle is mysteriously completed from day to day.

The other week, we hit the library’s used book sale and the kids were delighted to find a table full of puzzles for 50 cents each. At that price, I could hardly say no, although, I was concerned that if the previous owners were anything like us, we might end up with a few 998-piece puzzles.

G hit the jackpot with a round puzzle that featured all sorts of ocean fish. In true G fashion, he has assembled most of the individual fish based on their patterns.

As I was helping him the other night, I got an eye roll when I suggested a piece go on the blue fin tuna, when clearly it was meant for the yellow fin. A is now swooping in to point out where things “obviously” go and E is diligently following the cover of the box, when A and G aren’t there to direct.

As I watch them all work together and yet so differently, I wonder how these skills will play out in their future.

I can see A becoming an architect, pulling elaborate buildings together out of thin air. I can see E becoming an interior designer, mixing and matching details with a keen eye toward pattern and texture.

And G? Well, mostly, I can see G working hard at whatever he needs to do in order to free up all his time to go fishing.

Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.